"Today, for the first time in history, a crewed spaceship, built to carry private passengers, reached space", Bransonsaid earlier in a statement.

The carrier airplane hauled the SpaceShipTwo passenger rocket plane to an altitude of about 45,000 feet (13.7 kms) and released it. Seconds later, SpaceShipTwo fired, catapulting it to more than 51 miles (82 km) above Earth, high enough for the pilots, Mark Stucky and Frederick Sturckow, to experience weightlessness and see the curvature of the planet.

As for VSS Unity itself, Virgin Galactic confirmed at 16:14 UTC that the spacecraft had landed safely at Mojave Airport, a little over 10 minutes after touching space. Aboard were test pilots Mark "Forger" Stucky and C.J Sturckow.

On the December 13 test flight, SpaceShipTwo's hybrid rocket motor burned for 60 seconds, several seconds longer than the high end of estimates of the burn time company officials gave at a briefing the day before. After a 60-second engine burn speeds the craft to almost three times the speed of sound, it continues its ascent, coasting until it reaches maximum altitude.

Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo carrier plane takes off with the SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity from Mojave Air and Space Port ahead of the fourth powered test flight of the passenger space plane on December 13, 2018. Today's mission, in fact, featured four NASA-sponsored research payloads - the first ones to make it aboard SpaceShipTwo via the agency's Flight Opportunities Program.

He also stated that, if all goes well, only a few more test flights would be needed before Virgin Galactic would be ready to shift operations to Spaceport America in New Mexico, where the company plans to perform commercial flights. They too are hoping to take their first commercial passengers in 2019.

VSS Unity the Virgin Galactic space craft is hoped to be piloted into space for the first time on Thursday

Besides VSS Unity, two more SpaceShipTwo vehicles are now under construction, with the first of them expected to be completed in about a year. "It cost a very similar price to what we're spending today to put people into space", he said. A typical NASA "sounding rocket", a small rocket generally launched with equipment on board to take measurements and scientific experiments during an approximately 30-minute sub-orbital flight only, reaches anywhere from 30-80 miles above the Earth.

The 68-year-old had been emotional throughout the flight, shedding many tears and hugging his son Sam as it eventually made its way to space altitudes.

Virgin Galactic, which is focused on space tourism, aims to use SpaceShipTwo to take paying customers for a short journey to and from space.

Then, in 2014, SpaceShipTwo broke apart during a test flight by Scaled Composites when the co-pilot prematurely unlocked the "feathering" system and it began to deploy. Virgin Galactic said "At the end stages of the rocket burn in the thin air of the mesosphere and with the speeds that we expect to achieve, additional altitude is added rapidly".

Today's launch of SpaceShipTwo was an vast breakthrough in the push for privatized space travel, as well as for Virgin Group. And Blue Origin - which plans to fly tourists on an automated, vertically launched rocket - has yet to conduct a crewed flight or begin selling tickets.

Taliban representatives would not meet with Afghan government representatives who are in the U.A.E., the spokesman also said. Some Afghan sources say Monday's meeting will take place in Islamabad, but no official confirmation is available.

The Indians , who are trying to gain payroll flexibility, have traded Yan Gomes , Encarnacion, Diaz and Alonso since November 30. Alonso has an $8 million salary for 2019 and a $9 million option for '20 with a $1 million buyout.

However, just after the half-hour mark, United found themselves level after a howler from Alisson saw Jesse Lingard slot home. Klopp introduced Shaqiri with 20 minutes to go, and within minutes the Swiss forward had put Liverpool back into the lead.

Goodlatte said Congress did not get all the answers it wanted from Pichai, but he agreed to provide further information. Other Democrats signaled such oversight could come in 2019, when they take over control of the chamber.

They claimed that when Congress past year repealed the tax penalty for the so-called individual mandate, it eliminated the U.S. It was an answer to a lawsuit brought by Republican governors who said that without a penalty, there is no "tax".

It is this version of Lowry - the attacking, aggressive version - that allows the Raptors to unlock their highest ceiling. The Raptors' performance was so good, they got Durant's attention. "I'm sure we could have done better", Lowry said.

Washington Post in its report pointed out that YouTube's Rewind is supposed to celebrate top moments on the network in the year. But that came after an initial, forceful, negative reaction from many creators and their fans when the video came out.

For the moment, Democrats like Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer of NY were eager to crow about the latest departure. Top Democrat leaders Saturday were quick to bash Zinke, one even calling him part of the swamp that needed to be drained.

He said MPs should have the full range of options to consider if the deal was rejected including the idea of a second referendum. Jeremy Corbyn has accused Prime Minister Theresa May of having led the United Kingdom into a "national crisis" on Brexit.

Zinke has maintained that he will be cleared in the investigations and has followed all department ethical rules. His departure makes him the ninth Cabinet-level official to leave a post since Trump took office two years ago.

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